by Peter McGuigan It is very obvious now that ferry-dependent communities on the coast of BC are not going to see any relief from increasing fares and declining service.
Transportation and infrastructure minister Todd Stone was adamant that no relief will be provided when he reportedly “blasted” the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) for releasing a report that clearly demonstrated the coastal economy has taken a $2.3-billion hit over 10 years.
In 2015 coastal communities will be subjected to yet another fare increase of 3.9 per cent. If coastal communities don’t like the increasing ferry fares one solution, apparently, is for local governments to enact a tax to offset ferry costs. According to City of Powell River’s Mayor Dave Formosa, in a recent radio interview, this is what the minister suggested.
“Building the economy” is Premier Christy Clark’s most pervasive message to British Columbians.
But the principle building block, of any economy, is its transportation infrastructure and an affordable coastal ferry system is the pivotal component of our transportation infrastructure.
The report prepared for the UBCM, called Boatswains to the Bollards: a socioeconomic impact analysis of BC Ferries, clearly outlines the negative economic impact of the provincial government’s entrenched coastal ferry policy.
The $2.3-billion loss to the coastal economy over 10 years, detailed in the report, is a staggering amount of money. This is clearly inconsistent with Clark’s message of working to build BC’s economy.
So it is time to figure out what’s really going on with the ferry system.
Groups such as the BC Ferry Coalition, the BC Coastal Alliance and the lobby group of local government representatives organized by Powell River Regional District Chair Colin Palmer, have all concentrated on fares and service levels. But by concentrating on fares and service levels they may have been distracted from the provincial government’s primary objective. The answer can be found in the Coastal Ferry Act and the responsibilities of the Ferries Commissioner—the person with the overall responsibility for coastal ferries.
One of the commissioner’s “four principles,” or obligations, is to encourage the “ferry operators...to seek...alternate service providers...through fair and open competitive processes.” In other words, privatize coastal ferry services. And the higher the ferry fares the more attractive it is to private operators to take over the operation of one or more routes. It is certainly apparent, particularly in view of the $2.3-billion hit on the coastal economy, so far, that the government’s policy is not economically driven. It is looking more like the provincial government is taking an ideological approach to coastal ferries: privatization.
The forthcoming local government elections may provide an opportunity to turn up the heat on the provincial government’s ferries policy. Many of the local government candidates are members of one of the three main provincial political parties. With this in mind, it would not be unreasonable for the party insiders to tell the electorate what they are doing inside their party to reverse the government’s economically and socially regressive ferries policy. And all candidates should be required to explain what they intend to do, within the framework of their local governments, to reverse the province’s destructive ferries policy.
Peter McGuigan is retired from small business and lives on Texada Island.
